RALEIGH, N.C. – Even the memory still rankles Brad Marchand.
“Thanks for twisting that knife,” the Florida Panthers forward said to a reporter, through a smile, after he was asked about teammate Carter Verhaeghe’s penchant for scoring game-winning, series-clinching goals.
It might have been two years ago, but it is likely that the goal still stings, the one that Verhaeghe scored at 8:35 of overtime of Game 7 of the 2023 Eastern Conference First Round on April 30, the goal that knocked the Boston Bruins out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs after the best regular season in NHL history and sent the Florida Panthers on a run that has now reached its third consecutive Stanley Cup Final.
Though, perhaps it stings a little less now that Marchand benefits from Verhaeghe’s heroics, including the game- and series-winner he scored in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final at Lenovo Center against the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday.
He now gets to watch and cheer.
“He’s one of those guys, he knows where to go on the ice to make himself dangerous every shift,” said Marchand, the longtime Bruins forward who was traded to Florida on March 8. “It doesn’t seem like pressure gets to him at all, or the moment in the game.”
Marchand may never forgive Verhaeghe for that other goal which ended a season that he -- like many -- believed would end with the Bruins winning the Cup, but the forward’s latest may just give him a chance to get it this year.
It came off an outstanding play from captain Aleksander Barkov, who took the puck along the back end boards behind Hurricanes goalie Frederik Andersen, all while being dogged by Hurricanes defenseman Dmitry Orlov. He fought the defenseman off, away from the puck, eventually muscling him around to change direction and head back toward the net.
Once he got there, he sent a pass across the crease to Verhaeghe, who put the right touch on an off-balance shot from just beyond the goal line at 12:21 of the third.
It went in.
“He’s an incredible shooter,” Marchand said. “He’s a shot-first guy and when you have that mentality, you put more pucks to the net, more opportunities you’re going to get and he just buries his head and shoots it as hard as he can every time he’s in that slot and he reads really well off ‘Barky’.
“You saw the play, he was behind the net and Barky and he popped into that little hole that he needed to to give himself an opportunity and that’s what all the really good goal-scorers do, they’re able to find that little space on the ice and all they need is a foot or two and they can make something happen. And he has that mindset where he knows how to get open and an incredible shot too.”
